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	<title>TWO WRITING TEACHERS</title>
	<link>http://twowritingteachers.wordpress.com</link>
	<description>Teaching Kids.  Catching Minds.  872 Miles Apart.</description>
	<lastBuildDate>Thu, 12 Nov 2009 05:02:00 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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	<language>en</language>
	
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		<title>Ah, to be 13 again.  Well, not really.</title>
		<description><![CDATA[I’ve had 13, a collection of short stories edited by James Howe, sitting in my bookshelf for the past few years.  I bought it based on the recommendation of a staff developer at the TCRWP who shared Rachel Vail’s “Thirteen and a Half” at a Calendar Day I attended.  Since the book is geared towards [...]<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=twowritingteachers.wordpress.com&blog=1220974&post=5245&subd=twowritingteachers&ref=&feed=1" />]]></description>
		<link>http://twowritingteachers.wordpress.com/2009/11/12/a-middle-school-mentor-text/</link>
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		<title>November 11th</title>
		<description><![CDATA[
       <img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=twowritingteachers.wordpress.com&blog=1220974&post=5251&subd=twowritingteachers&ref=&feed=1" />]]></description>
		<link>http://twowritingteachers.wordpress.com/2009/11/11/november-11th/</link>
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		<title>Formal and Informal Writing with Conventions</title>
		<description><![CDATA[I use conventions in my writer’s notebook and in e-mails. I tend to write with proper conventions when I’m IM-ing since I know it makes my message easier for my reader to decode when we’re writing back and forth rapidly. I write with conventions when I jot notes to my husband. I consistently write with [...]<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=twowritingteachers.wordpress.com&blog=1220974&post=5241&subd=twowritingteachers&ref=&feed=1" />]]></description>
		<link>http://twowritingteachers.wordpress.com/2009/11/10/formal-and-informal-writing-with-conventions/</link>
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		<title>SOLSC</title>
		<description><![CDATA[       <img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=twowritingteachers.wordpress.com&blog=1220974&post=5235&subd=twowritingteachers&ref=&feed=1" />]]></description>
		<link>http://twowritingteachers.wordpress.com/2009/11/10/solsc-6/</link>
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		<title>Peer Conferring: Questions</title>
		<description><![CDATA[I&#8217;m intrigued by peer conferring.  There&#8217;s just something about two writers coming together to talk about their work that&#8217;s interesting to me.  I love the nuances of peer conferring &#8212; learning what works well and what doesn&#8217;t.  I like to study really strong collaborations to find the little-known-secrets to a specific grade level of writers.  [...]<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=twowritingteachers.wordpress.com&blog=1220974&post=5237&subd=twowritingteachers&ref=&feed=1" />]]></description>
		<link>http://twowritingteachers.wordpress.com/2009/11/09/peer-conferring-questions/</link>
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		<title>Owning Your Story.</title>
		<description><![CDATA[I was talking with a friend and colleague of mine, Deb Gaby.  She was commenting about how often in life when we begin to think differently, this new awareness crops up in many different aspects of our life.  Interestingly enough, Deb and I are both thinking deeply about  collecting the stories which define our lives.
She [...]<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=twowritingteachers.wordpress.com&blog=1220974&post=5226&subd=twowritingteachers&ref=&feed=1" />]]></description>
		<link>http://twowritingteachers.wordpress.com/2009/11/07/owning-your-story/</link>
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		<title>Making Characters Talk</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Dialogue.  It&#8217;s something we wish students would use purposefully inside of a piece of writing.  Too often, when our students do write with dialogue, it sounds like this:

&#8220;Hi,&#8221; I said.

&#8220;Hi,&#8221; my sister said.

&#8220;What do you want to do today?&#8221; I said.

&#8220;I don&#8217;t know,&#8221; she said.

&#8220;Let&#8217;s go to the park,&#8221; I said.

&#8220;Okay,&#8221; she said.

&#8220;Okay,&#8221; [...]<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=twowritingteachers.wordpress.com&blog=1220974&post=5217&subd=twowritingteachers&ref=&feed=1" />]]></description>
		<link>http://twowritingteachers.wordpress.com/2009/11/05/redted/</link>
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		<title>Speaking to Me.</title>
		<description><![CDATA[These words are speaking to my soul tonight.  I&#8217;m planning to use them in a workshop I&#8217;m leading tomorrow.
Students such as these walk into your classrooms in every size, shape, and color.  You can&#8217;t know their histories because their only control is control of their secrets.  You are asked to create a safe enough place [...]<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=twowritingteachers.wordpress.com&blog=1220974&post=5214&subd=twowritingteachers&ref=&feed=1" />]]></description>
		<link>http://twowritingteachers.wordpress.com/2009/11/04/speaking-to-me/</link>
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		<title>Share Your Slices</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Happy Election Day!  Whether you&#8217;re teaching today, attending professional development (I&#8217;m personally leading a session on conferring, so I&#8217;ll be posting my Slice later today.), or have the day off, please remember to get out and vote!
       <img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=twowritingteachers.wordpress.com&blog=1220974&post=5197&subd=twowritingteachers&ref=&feed=1" />]]></description>
		<link>http://twowritingteachers.wordpress.com/2009/11/03/share-your-slices/</link>
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		<title>Allowing Words to Hang in the Air</title>
		<description><![CDATA[At the Basic Workshop Training there is always time for Adult Writing.  Yesterday, I shared one way to help get students writing is to read aloud a well-written text (a poem, picture book, or novel excerpt) and then allow the words &#8220;to hang in the air&#8221; while everyone silently picks up their pens and begins to [...]<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=twowritingteachers.wordpress.com&blog=1220974&post=5209&subd=twowritingteachers&ref=&feed=1" />]]></description>
		<link>http://twowritingteachers.wordpress.com/2009/11/02/allowing-words-to-hang-in-the-air/</link>
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		<title>Publishing Books with Students</title>
		<description><![CDATA[This past Monday I heard Kwame Alexander, who is a poet (He trained with Nikki Giovanni at Virgina Tech!), author, and founder of Book-in-a-Day, speak at the KSRA Conference in Hershey, PA.  My handwritten notes from his talk about engaging students with poetry are at the bottom of this post.
Alexander founded Book-in-a-Day, Inc., or BID,  [...]<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=twowritingteachers.wordpress.com&blog=1220974&post=5184&subd=twowritingteachers&ref=&feed=1" />]]></description>
		<link>http://twowritingteachers.wordpress.com/2009/10/30/publishing-books-with-students/</link>
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		<title>Writing About Historic Events, People, or Places</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Pennsylvania-based author Linda Oatman High led a session entitled &#8220;Writing to the Beat of a Different Drummer&#8221; at the KSRA Conference I attended this week.  (My handwritten notes from her session, which provided an array of ideas for getting students to write, are located at the bottom of this post in a Scribd Document.)
Oatman High [...]<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=twowritingteachers.wordpress.com&blog=1220974&post=5190&subd=twowritingteachers&ref=&feed=1" />]]></description>
		<link>http://twowritingteachers.wordpress.com/2009/10/29/oatmanhigh/</link>
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		<title>I {Heart} Comments</title>
		<description><![CDATA[From time to time, I use this blog to sort out ideas I&#8217;m wrestling with.  I must admit this puts me in a vulnerable place.  Such was the case with Monday&#8217;s posts.  Audience &#8212; authentic audience &#8212; has been on my mind a lot lately.
Sometimes I think we make things more complicated than they need to [...]<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=twowritingteachers.wordpress.com&blog=1220974&post=5180&subd=twowritingteachers&ref=&feed=1" />]]></description>
		<link>http://twowritingteachers.wordpress.com/2009/10/28/i-heart-comments/</link>
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		<title>SOLSC Meets Picture Book Illustrators</title>
		<description><![CDATA[
KSRA Authors Tea Mug &#38; Chocolate (er, what&#8217;s left of the chocolate)
Originally uploaded by teachergal

When I received the registration form for the KSRA Conference, I did something I don’t usually do.  I signed up for the Author Tea.  I figured I might meet some interesting people and have a nice afternoon snack.  [...]<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=twowritingteachers.wordpress.com&blog=1220974&post=5175&subd=twowritingteachers&ref=&feed=1" />]]></description>
		<link>http://twowritingteachers.wordpress.com/2009/10/27/alittleabouthowillustratorswork/</link>
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		<title>Join Us for Today&#8217;s Slice of Life Challenge!</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Please link your Slice of Life Story to this post by leaving a comment.
       <img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=twowritingteachers.wordpress.com&blog=1220974&post=5168&subd=twowritingteachers&ref=&feed=1" />]]></description>
		<link>http://twowritingteachers.wordpress.com/2009/10/27/join-us-2/</link>
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		<title>Motivation (Part II).</title>
		<description><![CDATA[This finally led me to thinking about my high school art classes.  I was in the Honors Art Course and for me it was tough to get into.  I worked even harder to stay in it.  I didn&#8217;t have the talent that everyone else had and I lived with the pressure that someone else could [...]<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=twowritingteachers.wordpress.com&blog=1220974&post=5172&subd=twowritingteachers&ref=&feed=1" />]]></description>
		<link>http://twowritingteachers.wordpress.com/2009/10/26/motivation-part-ii/</link>
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		<title>Motivation (Part I)</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Last week I was in a history class.  It was the teacher&#8217;s prep, but there were students working to put final touches on their presentations which were due later in the day.  Out of the blue, this conversation ensued:
&#8220;I&#8217;ve got to start all over!&#8221; a student shouted.
The teacher smiled and said, &#8220;What do you mean?&#8221;
&#8220;Look at theirs!  It&#8217;s [...]<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=twowritingteachers.wordpress.com&blog=1220974&post=5166&subd=twowritingteachers&ref=&feed=1" />]]></description>
		<link>http://twowritingteachers.wordpress.com/2009/10/26/motivation-part-i/</link>
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		<title>Encouraging Revision</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Revision is one of my favorite parts of the writing process to teach.  I enjoy figuring out ways to encourage writers to make significant revisions.  It seems so often our students revise just to appease the teacher and the revisions don&#8217;t really matter to the writer and don&#8217;t really matter to the meaning of the [...]<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=twowritingteachers.wordpress.com&blog=1220974&post=5163&subd=twowritingteachers&ref=&feed=1" />]]></description>
		<link>http://twowritingteachers.wordpress.com/2009/10/24/encouraging-revision/</link>
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		<title>Making Students Feel Valued.</title>
		<description><![CDATA[This morning as I was listening to the radio on my way to school, they were asking little kids to respond to the question:  How do you know someone loves you?  This response stuck with me:
You know someone loves you by the way they say your name.  Your name just sounds safe in their mouth.
It&#8217;s [...]<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=twowritingteachers.wordpress.com&blog=1220974&post=5158&subd=twowritingteachers&ref=&feed=1" />]]></description>
		<link>http://twowritingteachers.wordpress.com/2009/10/23/making-students-feel-valued/</link>
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		<title>WordFest 2009</title>
		<description><![CDATA[I presented at the Capital Area Writing Project&#8217;s WordFest tonight.  Just thought I&#8217;d share my presentation in this forum as well.

SESSION NAME: Well-Chosen Words About Slices of Real Life
BRIEF DESCRIPTION: Help your students find the beauty in their everyday lives by opening up your notebook and sharing your own writing with them. In this section, [...]<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=twowritingteachers.wordpress.com&blog=1220974&post=5155&subd=twowritingteachers&ref=&feed=1" />]]></description>
		<link>http://twowritingteachers.wordpress.com/2009/10/22/wordfest-2009/</link>
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		<title>Personification, An Effective Ending, &amp; More</title>
		<description><![CDATA[A copy of Laurie Halse Anderon&#8217;s The Hair of Zoe Fleefenbacher Goes to School arrived at my home last week.  I read it once and put it aside since I was unsure of what this book would be most suitable for teaching (i.e., there&#8217;s so much it can be used for!).  I took [...]<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=twowritingteachers.wordpress.com&blog=1220974&post=5152&subd=twowritingteachers&ref=&feed=1" />]]></description>
		<link>http://twowritingteachers.wordpress.com/2009/10/22/zoe/</link>
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		<title>Write What Matters Most.</title>
		<description><![CDATA[It&#8217;s getting late.  I&#8217;m tired.  A blog post is required before I go to bed.  Although I have a list of possibilities, I don&#8217;t have the energy for them.  Not tonight.  Tonight I simply want to take Walter Wellesley &#8220;Red&#8221; Smith&#8217;s advice: 
&#8220;There&#8217;s nothing to writing.  All you do is sit down at a typewriter and open [...]<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=twowritingteachers.wordpress.com&blog=1220974&post=5147&subd=twowritingteachers&ref=&feed=1" />]]></description>
		<link>http://twowritingteachers.wordpress.com/2009/10/21/write-what-matters-most/</link>
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		<title>Today&#8217;s SOLSC Coincides with The National Day on Writing</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Our weekly Slice of Life Story Challenge coincides with The National Day on Writing today.  Celebrate this special day by doing one, or more, of the following things as a writer:
1)  Craft a new piece of writing and link it below.
2)  Peruse the National Gallery of Writing.
3)  Take part in a live webcast from 9:00 [...]<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=twowritingteachers.wordpress.com&blog=1220974&post=5138&subd=twowritingteachers&ref=&feed=1" />]]></description>
		<link>http://twowritingteachers.wordpress.com/2009/10/20/solscnationalwritingday/</link>
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		<title>Peter Johnston + Agency</title>
		<description><![CDATA[These words of Peter Johnston&#8217;s from his book Choice Words (2004) have been tumbling around in my mind this weekend.  I plan to keep them close as I go about my work this week.
If nothing else, children should leave school with a sense that if they act, and act strategically, they can accomplish their goals (29).
As [...]<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=twowritingteachers.wordpress.com&blog=1220974&post=5134&subd=twowritingteachers&ref=&feed=1" />]]></description>
		<link>http://twowritingteachers.wordpress.com/2009/10/19/peter-johnston-agency/</link>
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		<title>The Case for Record-Keeping</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Ruth and I are putting the finishing touches on the Conferring Section of our book just as I&#8217;m starting to work on presentations for two separate school districts about conferring in the Writing Workshop.  Hence, conferring has been on my mind a lot lately!

Record-keeping is always a hot topic when you talk about conferring since [...]<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=twowritingteachers.wordpress.com&blog=1220974&post=5089&subd=twowritingteachers&ref=&feed=1" />]]></description>
		<link>http://twowritingteachers.wordpress.com/2009/10/16/the-case-for-record-keeping/</link>
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		<title>A New Source for Finding Mentor Texts</title>
		<description><![CDATA[I’m not recommending a children’s book you can use in your classroom today.  Instead, I have something better.  It’s a professional book about children’s books that every writing teacher needs to have improve their use of teaching with mentor texts needs to have.
Earlier this year Susan Ehmann and Kellyann Gayer published I can write like [...]<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=twowritingteachers.wordpress.com&blog=1220974&post=5097&subd=twowritingteachers&ref=&feed=1" />]]></description>
		<link>http://twowritingteachers.wordpress.com/2009/10/15/icanwritelikethat/</link>
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		<title>Here&#8217;s to Writing Workshop!</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Today Tony Miller and his third grade class invited me to celebrate with them the publication of their first pieces.  (Although we considered this the launch unit, it was actually the third unit of study, following Oral Storytelling and Launching Writing Notebooks.)  It was a perfect celebration.
We started in the traditional way, meeting in the [...]<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=twowritingteachers.wordpress.com&blog=1220974&post=5105&subd=twowritingteachers&ref=&feed=1" />]]></description>
		<link>http://twowritingteachers.wordpress.com/2009/10/14/5105/</link>
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		<title>Do You Ever Wonder If Kids Have Time to Wonder Anymore?</title>
		<description><![CDATA[This past summer Pam Munoz Ryan, author of two of my favorite read aloud books (i.e., Becoming Naomi Leon and Esperanza Rising) spoke at the TCRWP Writing Institute.  Her speech, &#8220;Reading to Write, and Writing to Read&#8221; took the audience on a journey of what she called &#8220;an unchoreographed childhood,&#8221; which was the result [...]<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=twowritingteachers.wordpress.com&blog=1220974&post=5091&subd=twowritingteachers&ref=&feed=1" />]]></description>
		<link>http://twowritingteachers.wordpress.com/2009/10/13/wondernonfiction/</link>
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		<title>Anecdotal Writing = Slice of Life Writing</title>
		<description><![CDATA[I&#8217;m presently working on a PowerPoint Presentation for an interactive workshop I&#8217;m leading at next Thursday&#8217;s WordFest 2009: A Celebration of Writing, which is sponsored by the Capital Area Writing Project.  My workshop is entitled &#8220;Well-Chosen Words About Slices of Real Life.&#8221;  The session description is:

Help  your students find the beauty in their everyday [...]<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=twowritingteachers.wordpress.com&blog=1220974&post=5084&subd=twowritingteachers&ref=&feed=1" />]]></description>
		<link>http://twowritingteachers.wordpress.com/2009/10/13/anecdotal-writing-slice-of-life-writing/</link>
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		<title>A Peek Into My Notebook</title>
		<description><![CDATA[In this (too-long) video, I share a peek into my notebook.  I&#8217;m not sure what happened, though, because when I prepared it for the Internet, the final letter was dropped from many of my titles.  Considering I&#8217;m brand new at this, I decided to still post it and beg for advice from some of you [...]<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=twowritingteachers.wordpress.com&blog=1220974&post=5079&subd=twowritingteachers&ref=&feed=1" />]]></description>
		<link>http://twowritingteachers.wordpress.com/2009/10/12/a-peek-into-my-notebook/</link>
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